Constantine Gabras
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Constantine Gabras (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Γαβράς) was the governor or doux (duke) of the Byzantine province of Chaldia or Trebizond on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia, in what is today north-eastern Turkey. The province of Chaldia effectively became a fief of the Gabrades (the Gabras family) as both Constantine's elder brother, Gregory, and his father, Theodore, had preceded him as governor.[1]
Constantine became doux some time, probably quite shortly, before the death of the emperor Alexios I Komnenos in 1118. His brother Gregory had openly rebelled against Alexios and had been defeated and taken captive to Constantinople.[2] Constantine seems to have been less rash in his politics, though he managed to rule Trebizond more or less free of central authority between 1126 and 1140. Choniates refers to him as the "tyrant of Trebizond."[3] Extant examples show that he minted his own lower denomination coinage.[4] In 1140 the emperor John II Komnenos moved into Chaldia with the main Byzantine army in order to campaign against the Danishmend Turks. This show of force was enough to overawe Constantine Gabras and the region came under direct Imperial control once more.[5]
Following their loss of power many of the Gabras dynasty gravitated to the court of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. One son of Constantine Gabras, also named Constantine, however, became a trusted minister of Manuel I Komnenos. He led an important, and successful, diplomatic mission to the Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan II in 1162.[6]
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Angold, Michael (1984). The Byzantine Empire 1025-1204. Longman, Harlow Essex.
- Choniates, Niketas. Historia. English translation: Magoulias, H. (O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates). Detroit, 1984. ISBN 0-814-31764-2
- Grierson, Philip, (1982), Byzantine Coins, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0416713602
